SGP's recent posts

Jade.Xuereb wrote:

My goals are off target :neutral_face:

Did the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles mess them up? Or what else happened?

@edz.conde: Tuna sandwiches, yummy they are. But it was a tuna pizza in my case.

@Gopal: Hi! Aap kaise hai? Any news from India?

@Miss "back to my cave" (inside joke):  

"How are you guys doing with your goals this year?"

Overall, I can't complain. Can't complain about the language goals either. But at least up to now, I had to reduce the learning time because of some things that are (even) more important to me.

edz.conde wrote:

Currently, I'm doing our week's laundry in a laundry shop because our house is a mess with the refurbishing and all. I hope everyone is just doing fine out there.

Is the laundry shop an expensive one?

And because you said something about refurbishing, I wonder if you speak the language called Furbish.

Currently in a VERY good mood, I don't know what's going on even. And there is a dish made out of bread and marine animals in the electro oven. Can you figure out what it is?

Rose.Angelie wrote:

When there are like 5 or more replies to 5 different threads, that's overwhelming for me. And if I don't have any value to add or can't keep the conversation going, I just don't reply anymore.

Never happened to me in this forum. Could be because I didn't "subscribe" to too many threads yet.

wrote:

Even on Facebook, when people comment on my own posts and I can't think of anything to say, I just like the comments and leave them hanging. LOL

I seeee...

Maybe many conversations (no matter between whom and whom) die like this?

Rose.Angelie wrote:

Jade.Xuereb wrote:

Maybe they don't see all their notifications?

In my case, I used to check and answer every single notification but now, I don't because I often find it overwhelming to receive a notification for every single reply.
Is it just me? LOL

Could it be that you built your tents in much more threads than I did?

Because I find it underwhelming. I sometimes wish that there was more going on.

Some very literal German <-> English translations. "Solutions" included in backward speech. Because maybe some of you would like to try figuring out the meaning first. And I Do Not Want To Spoil You . 

These aren't really the funniest ones. But still feeling like posting them.

"Joking cookie"

Meaning: .namreG ni skekzrehcS .ekoj ot sekil ohw enoemoS

"My English is not the yellow of the egg"

Meaning: doog taht t'nsi hsilgnE yM

"You can say you to me." 

Hint #1: namreG ni gnikniht fo tluser eht si tI .laretil ooooot si sihT

Hint #2: "ud" enoyreve llac t'ndluow uoy ,hcstueD nI

Solution: ("ud") yaw lamrofni na ni em ot klat nac (ralugnis ,lamrof, "eiS") uoy snaem tI

dragonsky wrote:

Well, it'sValentine's day (in some timezones it's tomorrow) so...good luck understanding women! :D :D

Oh my... I didn't expect something like this...

First of all, I have been closely listening to the conversation of you all in this thread these days. Maybe it even continues. I really like to know women's perspectives on all of these things.

And as for the current guest post :) about that day... well... up to now, I made five episodes of my very own "reality soap". On my YT channel. In German. It is called the "fangirls flirters news" *eye roll*. Really, if I could choose between the current situation or between nobody trying to flirt with me, I definitely would choose the second possibility. 

But no matter what I try, they just don't stop. There would be one way to avoid their attempts... that would be staying at home all the time. Needless to say, that can't be done. Because of that, I continue to make those videos, as well as telling some persons I know (offline) about them. Today I made two new episodes. One of them contains some not-so-small praise for a female shopkeeper who never flirted with me. This is sort of an exception even... 

I keep being puzzled of the fact how I ended up being... the counterpart of a woman who is being flirted to by too many men every day. But at least the number of those who heard of my attitude towards them did increase somehow. My attitude still is "if any of you is serious, then maybe, just maybe, you would pass the test that nobody else passed for years. Otherwise, I am simply not interested in your "cute eye movements" and stuff. I really, really, really got used to it. It isn't anything special to me any more, so just stop it by now."  

Charlyn wrote:

Hi everyone! What makes those specific languages the hardest and easiest one?

Hi Charlyn the PH-based Forum Moderator :).

Dutch only was one of the easiest because of its proximity to German. Not because of any second reason. Others (like Jess) may find it more difficult, but e.g. Italian more easy. 

toki pona only consists of 100 and something words. Very, very easy grammar. But on the other hand, it is full of riddles because of its built-in ambiguity. Even the maker of that (constructed) language stated it isn't a general-purpose one!

Japanese used to be the most difficult to me, because of being far, far away from any other language I speak. Also, maybe it is additionally difficult because Nippon used to be sort of an isolated island for a long time.

And as for the ease of Swahili:

The introduction of "Teach Yourself Swahili" (the old version by D.V. Perrott) was written by a non-native, more specifically, a consul from Zanzibar IIRC. He/she stated that "Swahili is very easy to learn, in fact, it is the easiest language/among the easiest ones". While this may be just a little bit of a stretch, I still agree with the main message. Almost all verbs are fully (100%) regular. The subjunctive is formed by changing the ending vowel to -e only. Etc. Yes, it has about 10 noun classes, but can get used to them, too.There seems to be something special about Swahili and what I perceive as ease of learning. This may be related to its past, because it started as sort of a creole or an (advanced) pidgin even. In addition, Swahili speakers tend to write just as they would speak, too.

Charlyn wrote:

What do you think is the easiest and hardest language you've learn so far? Other than your native..

Easiest: Dutch (very close to German), toki pona (because it is very minimalistic), Swahili

Hardest: used to be Japanese, but not any more.

Oghenekevwe wrote:

Okay I'm getting confused all over again.

Na so?

Wetin dey happen?

Dis no wahala.

wrote:

The examples you used; being a gamer and a video game player. I can see that one is 'intense' and the other 'casual'. Could the same be said for those three farmer translations? Could you please just use them in a sentence?

Well, y'know Oghenekevwe... this just might look more complicated than it really is. Fermier / cultivateur / agriculteur isn't about "intense vs. casual".

They all (basically) mean the same, as explained in that post above that also contains the dictionary quote.

I only mentioned that "video game player vs. gamer" example to illustrate what connotations (nuances) are.

dragonsky wrote:

So to use a dumb example..
It's like..hm...
Let's say "Player" in English where a player can be a guy that plays sport but it can also be a guy that plays video games, and it can also be a guy that gets women easily
?

Your example is about ambiguity. 

One word that can mean several things.

And that is a very important language topic too, no doubt.

But Oghenekevwe's question was more about nuances of word usage.

Or connotations (konotacija in Croatian, Конотация in Bulgarian.) 

The three French words fermier, agriculteur and cultivateur basically all mean "farmer". They have much in common. But there also are some (smaller) differences.

Because your example included someone who plays video games, maybe the following could make it more clear.

There are two words that (basically) mean the same:

- video game player

- gamer

In many contexts, we can replace one with the other without really changing the meaning.

But sometimes it is, nevertheless, different. Because of that thing called "connotations".

It is about what people associate with a word. About the feelings that are caused by saying that specific word, and not another one with a similar meaning.

A video game player could be anyone who plays video games. 

But when someone asks him/her, "are you a gamer?", the response still could be "no!". Or even "Not at all!" or "Who do you think I am?". Because sometimes, "gaming" and "being a gamer" is used for those who are especially interested in those games. Or even for video game freaks, or people who spend too many hours a day doing nothing else.

So that is an example of the nuances of some words, or their connotations.

Do you learn Japanese with Romaji (Latin alphabet letters) only for now? 

Oghenekevwe wrote:

Thanks SGP.
Does this mean all three can be used interchangeably?

Well, any words that are (almost) synonyms usually can be used interchangeably. Now why didn't that guy just say yes or no? Well, that's because Language Matters Matter.

Most words that one would consider synonyms (in any language) aren't really true and complete synonyms, even if they are very close. That's because of something called connotations. 

Some English examples:

farmer vs. peasant

to bring vs. to carry (the later being a bit more elaborate)

snake vs. serpent

smell vs. odor (AE) / odour (BE)

to buy vs. to purchase

etc., etc. etc.

But most of the time, agriculteur and cultivateur can be used interchangeably for "farmer". Because someone who does agriculture also cultivates something, and vice-versa. And even fermier, it is nowadays used very often to simply speak about a farmer, without emphasizing that whole "landholder" thing too much. 

le-dictionnaire . com:

"Définition de agriculteur: Personne qui, à titre professionnel, cultive la terre ou élève des animaux destinés à être consommés.

Définition de cultivateur: (Agriculture) Celui, celle qui cultive la terre ou qui exploite une terre, un domaine.

Définition de fermier:

Agriculteur.

(Vieilli) Celui, celle qui prend des terres ou des droits à ferme.

(En particulier) (Histoire) Ceux auxquels les droits du roi étaient affermés.

Oghenekevwe wrote:

I was looking up farmer in my dictionary and found different french words corresponding. I was wondering what the different nuances are between them:
un fermier
un cultivateur
un agriculteur
Any thoughts?
And please in the most simplified way possible.

First off, I really like questions like these. They mean that there is some more work to do (for those answering, and this time it could be me.)

un fermier --> le fermage

So according to the strict sense of the word, un fermier is a landholder in agriculture. You know... someone who sorta "leases" some land from a landlord, then uses it for his farm purposes. 

But apart from that, a fermier simply is a farmer.

un cultivateur --> cultiver (to cultivate)

un agriculteur --> l'agriculture (female; agriculture)

So there isn't such a big usage difference after all between those three words, because they all refer to some similar things. In short, they (almost) are synonyms. 

Charlyn wrote:

When I happened to receive a not effective vacuum cleaner that I thought was effective. :slightly_smiling_face:

More details! Me wants more details!

There is a question to all women in the end of this post :).

Jade.Xuereb wrote:

Did you meet a fangirl that you're a fan of ? :wink:

No I didn't. And even if any day any of them would be able to impress me sufficiently, to call myself her fan would be simply too much. Because of some reasons I am not mentioning in public.

I just realized that this thread's title could be just a little bit confusing to some, although not meaning you, Jade. Because I stated that it isn't about flirting and dating. But later, I kept writing about those "fangirls flirters" and their attempts of impressing me. So what I was trying to say that this thread isn't about learning how I could do this and that flirting-related thing. Apart from the fact that I am not someone anyway who would just flirt with any woman he just met or anything like that... and apart from not needing to learn it either... but back to topic... So this thread simply is about how to understand women even better. But whenever I would be learning something about anything they do/say/feel, it would be on-topic on this log. Even if it is about their (not my) flirting.

Now there is a new question to my teachers (any female on this forum). There may or not be any answers. But nevermind. 

It is no secret that men often don't understand women too well. What could be the main reason?

Now that just might be the explanation.

Although that wouldn't be a big sensation.

Among my worst shopping experiences (though I don't make a big deal of them): Customer services not responding to the most basic questions, thus I didn't buy anything.

They call Germany a "Servicewüste", i.e. desert of service...

I personally really like living here. But I keep wondering why so many of those customer service employees don't do any real long-term thinking.

There are many genres I like.

But I like something else as well.

Now what might that beeee?

It is about not always thinking of music as "its genre is electro/reggae/whatever".

To me, music simply is a language on its own.

Some quotes of several unnamed persons who lived hundreds of years ago:

- Whoever takes knowledge all at once, it also leaves him all at once.

- Knowledge is like an ocean, and the ocean only consists of countless drops of water.

- Wealth is like [something else you don't need because of the sake of itself]. So you would use it when there is some (real) necessity, but it shouldn't have any important place in your heart.

- Cocoa beans aren't really beans, but seeds.

- Before a process called fermentation is finished, they haven't got their typical cocoa aroma yet.

- The vanilla spice is sort of a fruit. It is the fruit of a tropical orchid. And it also is fermented.

dragonsky wrote:

I like how this thread is going on ^_^
This forum is full of great people ^_^

Y'know...I am also someone who really likes being in this forum. 

And at the same time, there is something I keep thinking of once in a while.

How come that a not-so-small number of people join, make a few posts, and then don't even reply to e.g. their own introduction thread any more, not to mention any other threads? Don't want to sound like complaining. Simply wondering a little bit. And yes, I also had been sometimes absent for a few days. But still... does anybody have any thoughts on that one?

Nevermind my previous question. Those "fangirls flirters" still are there, they didn't stop at all. However, I simply am very, very grateful (although NOT towards them...) that now things are entirely different. Now I don't feel that (previous) stress any more because of their too many flirting attempts. I still don't like it, but as I just said, some things are different now :).

Jade.Xuereb wrote:

It is difficult to express that without sounding arrogant.

You are right. And that's why I ask "my teachers", i.e. you women. Yes, that's the plural. Women who aren't named Jade can reply as well ;). 

If it was about very few females only, I could tell them things like "you know, I am only here for shopping". But because they really are many, it would be much more difficult to do so all the time. By the way, it isn't about those who work in those shops only. It is also about other female customers, and about too many women I meet on the streets when I am going somewhere.

Jade.Xuereb wrote:

I will say that a large number of beautiful young women are employed in retail, and they do have to be smiling and helpful and paying attention to customers.

They do it like this, yes... And by the way, I already considered that matter when I wrote my previous post. But there is something going on, additionally, as well:

- A certain number of them tries to flirt with me much more than they do with some other customers, if they try to really flirt with them at all.

- Some of those female employees also started some short conversations with me even if they weren't required to do so. I didn't even go to their counter or anything, but they still initiated their conversations, while showing that they are very happy to have the opportunity of talking to me...

- And as I already mentioned above, it isn't about shopkeepers only, but also about female customers in those shops.

wrote:

I think many women think this is how society wants them tobehave and thatdeep down it also speaks to a primal part of us(which is why sex subconsciously sells) this reinforces that thenehthe behaviour is ok. Apologies for typos am on a phone which I hate

There is something I am really trying to understand about that part. Because... in addition to all of those who simply try to flirt with me for whatever reason, there is a certain (although much smaller) number of those whom I, myself, also consider as possibly interesting, to some degree at least.

But if I try to signalize any of them that they have got any above-average chances, sometimes some of them do what is called ... playing hard to get. Even if I do make it clear that I am not at all into what is called an ...... ONS.

So in short, they sometimes are artificially delaying the whole possibility of getting to know each other (on an entirely non-physical level!). And, no offense, but I am somewhat puzzled why they risk to be removed from my list of women that I consider having enough potential for being tested (by me...). Because at the same time, they do consider it as sort of an ... honor ... to have the sole possibility of being tested. Most of them don't get any chance in the first place, because I ... do lots and lots of selection and filtering in advance, before I even consider to talk to any of them for any reason......

Also, I really do hope that nobody gets me wrong right now. But those women do treat me someone who is very special to them. But at the same time, they (sometimes) want to delay even the most basic longer conversations between me and them. I really don't know why. And I consider it, well, their "problem", rather than mine. But still.

By the way, I did have the experience of being rejected by one girl after another in my youth. Also, when I was a lot younger, a much smaller number of girls and women tried to flirt with me. This wasn't only in my youth, but also when I was a young adult (like 18 or 20). So I really am able to make that comparison. I mean comparing being someone who they aren't interested in, and being someone who they are very interested in...

Their overall attitude of wanting to be "recognized" as someone "adorable and ____" by the society didn't change too much during the last 10 or 15 years, I'd say. Even if isn't the very same of course, but still. On the other hand, someone else did change a lot, so ... as I said, I do know that it isn't about their overall interest in being perceived as beautiful / _____ by just anyone only.......

Now I'd like to ask the women on this forum a question. And I'd really like you all to note that (as I already pointed out in the past), this isn't about bashing half of the world's population or anything like that... It's just that I really started getting (literally) more tired and exhausted as the time went on. Now even more women try to impress me in a certain way... This even has been the topic of two (German) videos of mine. The first one got a lot more views than many of the other videos... In addition, I am also trying one tea blend after another as an additional way of reducing stress that is being caused by "a certain type" of females, and definitely not by all or most of them!

So my question is...

If someone has got major difficulties going to just any shop without a rather large number of females flirting with him, what could he do to signalize the following? 

"No offense, but way too many women already try to flirt with me. So I really got used to it, and I don't consider it something special any more. In case you are serious, you just might try to impress me, but without putting on a lot of make-up and so on. If I think that you are more special than most of the others whom I see, then I just might give you an opportunity to prove yourself. Otherwise, I simply have to move on, and I wouldn't want you to try to flirt with me in the future either, because way too many are doing it anyway".

Hi there, jambo and hallo, it's-a me once again . During the past weeks, I have been very busy with some preparations towards a certain goal. Now they started to bear some fruits. There is a new Youtube channel about multiple topics. Including, but not limited to, learning tips and strategies, not-so-boring food recipes, improvisations, and so on. *Shameless plug for my non-commercial channel* . The languages I make the videos in are English and German for now. Planning to add some more later. 

And one more thing about the language learning tools and strategies: I am not trying to re-invent the wheel. But it is about Out of the Box Thinking, remixing some ideas of others, etc. And also about, sometimes, providing some drafts and blueprints only, that could be improved or remixed by whoever has got some interesting input.

If you want to Czech it Out, this is the International Spider Web Link for the Internet TV (a.k.a. Youtube) channel:

http://bitly.com/2TMvhGX

Bienvenida a ti misma, Carmen. ¿Venezuela es un país caribeño, no?

Oghenekevwe wrote:

I wrote this, took a second look at your writings, saw exactly what i wrote and started laughing at myself.
The article from Psychology Today is almost too accurate...Almost...

After having read your reply Oghenekevwe, I started to wonder which things would be more of a "generic women behavior", and which things would be much more about "they differ from woman to woman". Of course, I do know that one couldn't always make too many very general statements. But still. This question is part of the learning process.

Everyone could reply.

www . psychologytoday . com/us/blog/our-gender-ourselves/201408/6-ways-men-and-women-are-mostly-different wrote:

1. She wants it all. So does he. When we talk about how men and women define success, we often generalize: Women want balance, or to “have it all.” Men want status, and its symbols—houses, cars, stuff. But that’s not the whole story.[...] Both genders, meanwhile, ranked the qualities of career success in this order: Work-life balance, then money, and then recognition.

 

2. She wears her heart on her sleeve. He tucks it away. If I’ve heard this once, I’ve heard it a thousand times: “He can’t connect emotionally.”[...]

 

3. She fights. He takes flight. Perhaps this sounds familiar: A bad day for her ends in tears and a desire to rehash what went wrong and who did what, followed by a plan for how to “fix” it. For him? A short outburst, and then, end of discussion—a night of TV or a glass of scotch.[...]

 

4. She has lots of friends. He has, well, fewer.[...] Men have fewer friends than women, on average, and those friendships are different. They confide in each other less. They don’t talk. Instead, they “do stuff”—golf, ski, drink.[...]

 

5. She multi-tasks. He’s laser-focused.[...]So when he asks not to be interrupted, he’s not being brusque: It’s simply how he operates best.[...]

 

6. She regrets. So does he.[...]Studies show that men tend to regret things they hadn’t done, while women regretted things they had.

 

 

www . practicalecommerce . com/Behavioral-Differences-Between-Men-and-Women-Influence-Shopping wrote:

Retail is the dominion of women; they shop to purchase both essential and discretionary goods, to relax, and to socialize. So it’s not surprising that women account for over 80 percent of consumer spending, or about $5 trillion dollars annually, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Men, in contrast, are reluctant store shoppers and much more focused, shopping only if they intend to buy a specific item and wanting to get in and out quickly. A number of research studies show that much of this admittedly stereotypical behavior carries over to online shopping.[...]

 

Men tend to stick to their mission when shopping online, while women expand the undertaking by wandering among products and categories, according to a survey by Empathica, a customer experience consultancy. [...]

Pizza and kiwi.

Pizza and dried dates.

Cocoa and boilt water (without any milk or sugar).

Lentils / millet / buckwheat and an egg.

Some tea blends and an additional spice or two added by myself.

Sometimes I also could like to eat just any mix of fruits and vegetables.

And as for dried fruits, I could mix them with "just anything". If you grind them and use them in moderation, they can serve as a sort of a spice anyway... 

When I was doing a little bit of research for this log, I stumbled upon ... something. Now I'd like to share it with you all. But be warned. It made me laugh a great deal until my stomach had been hurt because some of it simply is wayyy too nonsensical or way too simplified.

It is one of the answers to a question asked on quora . com. The second answer, to be specific. And at the end of it, this person's "source" has been mentioned. Guess what? It simply says "facebook . com", without being any more specific. In addition, I do realize that not everyone (far from it) who might write an answer like this would be serious. But still... I fully do like to include it in this log because it illustrates that not everything is as simple as it could seem to some.

"What are the significant behavioral differences between men and women?" (emphasis added)

www . quora . com/What-are-the-significant-behavioral-differences-between-men-and-women wrote:

10 INTERESTING HUMAN BRAIN ANALYSIS – MEN vs. WOMEN

 

1.Women-Multi-tasking – Multiple process

 

Womens brains designed to concentrate multiple task at a time.

 

Women can Watch a TV and Talk over phone and cook.

 

Men – single process

 

Mens brains designed to concentrate only one work at a time. Men can not watch TV and talk over the phone at the same time. they stop the TV while Talking. They can either watch TV or talk over the phone or cook.

 

2 language

 

Women can easily learn many languages. But can not find solutions to problems. Men can not easily learn languages, they can easily solve problems. That’s why in average a 3 years old girl has three times higher vocabulary than a 3 years old boy.,

 

3.anaylytical process

 

Mens brains has a lot of space for handling the analytical process. They can analyze and find the solution for a process and design a map of a building easily. But If a complex map is viewed by women, they can not understand it. Women can not understand the details of a map easily, For them it is just a dump of lines on a paper.

 

4. car driving

 

While driving a car, mans analytical spaces are used in his brain. He can drive a car fastly. If he sees an object at long distance, immediately his brain classifies the object (bus or van or car) direction and speed of the object and he drives accordingly. Where woman take a long time to recognize the object direction/ speed. Mans single process mind stops the audio in the car (if any), then concentrates only on driving.

 

5.Ability to Lie

 

When men lie to women face to face, they get caught easily. Womans super natural brain observes facial expression 70%, body language 20% and words coming from the mouth 10%. Mens brain does not have this. Women easily lie to men face to face.

 

So guys, do not lie face to face.

 

6. Problem solving

  

If a man have a lot of problems, his brain clearly classifies the problems and puts them in individual rooms in the brain and then finds the solution one by one. You can see many guys looking at the sky for a long time. If a woman has a lot of problems, her brain can not classify the problems. she wants some one to hear that. After telling everything to a person she goes happily to bed. She does not worry about the problems being solved or not.

 

7.what they want

 

Men want status, success, solutions, big process, etc… But Women want relationship, friends, family, etc…

 

8.Unhappiness

 

If women are unhappy with their relations, they can not concentrate on their work. If men are unhappy with their work, they can not concentrate on the relations.

 

9.speech

 

Women use indirect language in speech. But Men use direct language.

 

10. Handling emotions

 

Women talk a lot without thinking. Men act a lot without thinking.

 

Read all the points and understand the behavioral pattern of men and women.

 

And edits are welcome.

 

Source- facebook . com

Jade.Xuereb wrote:

I'm pretty sure a lot of the confusion is because many women don't understand theirselves, walking through life trying to figure out what they want versus what society dictates they confirm or indeed rebel against...

How can anyone else understand them when they are so flippant with what they project as an identity?

This is what I call interesting input. Right now my mind is (sort of) occupied by what I read just now. Because ... well, that's what the following post would be about. But I'd like to get back to what you wrote later.

First of all, I do thank you, Oghenekevwe.

We may not agree on everything. 

But underneath it all (below the Tip of the Iceberg), you also provide some really valuable input. What kind of input? The one that helps understanding women even better.

Oghenekevwe wrote:

After the long read,I'm still at loss as to how you plan to "understand" women.

Several ways. Including, but not limited to:

- Writing down some personal thoughts, observations, etc.

- Reading any replies made by women, and responding to them in this thread.

- Posting something I read and mentioning its source. It goes without saying that anyone (but especially the women among the users) can then simply add something if they choose to do. This also, without any doubt, applies when they don't agree to any particular quote. Not everything that I would quote would necessarily be something I agree to either. However, of course I always (visibly) distinguish between my own words and citations of someone else's sayings.

Oghenekevwe wrote:

Oh SGP, we're so lucky to have you.lets all work hard enough to be more "interesting" to you.

Oh the irony.

And let me tell you something. I made it very clear in this thread's intro post that this log isn't about any baseless generalizations. So maybe you would have missed that my previous (long) post wasn't about "the women" in general...

Among the topics I addressed in it was the "phenomenon" of Plain Fashion Magazine Copycatism, women who don't have too much of a unique personality (although this happens to too many men as well, but this log isn't called "How to understand men even better"...), and a large number of other subtopics.

Also, I am fully aware of the fact that there definitely are many women with a much more unique personality than those I was talking about. How could I even try to deny the obvious? 

And if you'd ask me to name three examples of them right here on this forum, I wouldn't even need to think of an answer. Jess. Jade. Oghenekevwe. 

Oghenekevwe wrote:

"Kim is famous for doing nothing".

These weren't my words. Instead, I called her "famous for being famous".

Oghenekevwe wrote:

You're doing something,has the world changed?

I even go as far as saying that any action done by anyone does change the world to some extent, no matter how small or big these changes would be.

Oghenekevwe wrote:

Have you thought about it that perhaps if you weren't so condescending in your writing,you'd probably make a good point?

As for this whole "condescending" thing, I agree with you that it is one of the possible interpretations of what I wrote.

But how do you know what I really meant?

Maybe there is more than meets the eye.

Michelle.Batan wrote:

Good luck 😅

Your smiley (emoji) speaks for itself.

Good luck with writing the log?

Or good luck with the (possible, but very low probability) side-effect?

edz.conde wrote:

I understand you here, maybe it's in your persona to like/love the culture first before taking interest in learning their language. Though for some people, its the other way around.

And to some others, it could even be a mix of these two.

Like loving some aspects of the culture leading to learning something about the language, and also vice-versa.

Both possibilities already have applied to me, too, more than just once or twice. And they still do.

The following post is very (!) long. But I don't doubt at all that it can be a really big source of amusement for some of you, especially the females.

dragonsky wrote:

Ha, I love the title of this thread :D Good on the clarification :D
I will follow this thread closely haha :D

These clarifications really were necessary . 

And, in addition, there is something else I would like to tell you all. It is (also) related to the reasons of why I do not intend to discuss any "flirting tips" in this log, even if too many females (offline), on their part, try to flirt with me way too often.......

Before even starting to thread, I did mention my idea to a certain woman I know (although it is an online contact "only"; she also is on the other side of The Great Lake anyway). The planned title already was approximately the same. However, I didn't decide yet whether I would want to explicitly state that it isn't about flirting and dating or not. Even if I didn't intend it to be about that anyway.

She told me that at least in some parts of the US, "understanding women" is used as an euphemism for "attracting women". And that isn't at all what this log is about. It its is the thread starter whom a certain number of them looks at way too often... as "we all" already spoke about here:

https://languagetools.io/forum/pp/9932

But optimizing just any aspect of communication and understanding is something I really do like. So that's what this log is about. In addition, if there really would be a certain welcome side-effect, well, I am not saying that I would have any problems with that, you know ... Now what possible side-effect am I even talking about?

Well... as I continue learning more and more about how to understand women even better, while increasingly applying that knowledge, too, this could also lead any day to one of these whom I personally would consider as very interesting (after realizing her hidden potential) proving to me what she had been hiding in the past. I.e. that she really would be among the (very few, if they exist at all) women whom I, personally, consider as interesting enough. 

Although I am writing this log independently of this (possible, but sort of Very Low Probability) additional outcome.

Understanding women even better has more than enough (other) benefits as well.

My standards are very, very high anyway, and they cannot be fulfilled by the means of make-up or wearing some "super fancy" clothes. In fact, the less she tries to impress any other men, the more she just might be impressing myself. 

Recently, I talked to one of those who sometimes tried to flirt with me (she tried it more intensely than some other women, and even them, they also tried more than just one flirtation thing or two...). I told her, using some not-too-direct language, that to me, well, she is one out of hundreds only.

She (being someone with a not-so-unique personality, but I didn't mention that one to her too clearly) could try as she may, but she isn't supposed to go anywhere. Then I told her that I hope having been clear enough, hinting to not being interested in any more flirting attempts of her. Now that was the last thing I told her, apart from explicitly mentioning that this is a farewell to her, personally (we never met anywhere on purpose anyway, but sometimes she simply was at the same public place). 

I paid close attention to emphasizing "personally", because otherwise, it also could sound like the farewell of someone who simply is moving to the Caribbean. But in a certain sense, I have been living there anyway for a long time, on a mysterious, stunningly beautiful, but unknown island, and I still do. Although I never was there in the same way as someone who physically inhabits any of these islands .

So why should I relocate there when I already am there 24/7 anyway? (I.e. twenty-four hours, seven days a week). Quoting Sebastian the Red Talking Crab (and yes, he definitely, really, said "is" instead of "are"!):

The seaweed is always greener in somebody else's lake

You dream about going up there, but dat is a big mistake

Just look at the world around you, right here on the ocean floor

Such wonderful tings around you, what more is you looking for?

By the way, this particular woman wasn't the only one I told something like this (about the flirting and farewell, not about the Caribbean). I also spoke to a few others, using various degrees of directness or indirectness. I didn't forget the farewell either, sometimes non-verbally, and at least on one other occasion it was fully verbal. And I'd let you all to know that I do care a lot about the feelings of others as well, including, but not limited to, females. It's just that these particular women didn't react to my non-verbal messages of not being interested in their flirting attempts, in addition to themselves having done them in a rather "aggressive" way, as if they were advertising frying pans on a TV show that includes nothing but ads...

As for some other females, a very few of them might be able to (sufficiently) impress me if I provided them with a few tips on doing so every now and then. But still, that challenge is way too difficult for most of them at least. The main work would still be "up to them", if they wanted to do it, and I am not saying at all that they "have to do so" or anything like that. It would require some great efforts of ... improving certain parts of their personalities, and so on. Like moving away from being ... one out of too many copycats who only mimic someone like Kim Kardashian or another "famous for being famous" person. But I do fully realize that not every women is like this. 

And I kid you not. A short time ago, I was in any shop. Before leaving, I told one of the shopkeepers (whom I already talked to a few times, and yes, it is a female, too, but she doesn't try anything) that I (!) am entirely unreachable for Kim Kardashian. No, that is not a typo. No, I didn't mean to say it the other way around.

And once again, even if I would be 100% certain that none of the "very interesting for me personally" women out there would ever reveal her "interestingness" to me, that still wouldn't stop me at all from writing this log. Because understanding women even better has more than enough other benefits, too.

As it has been mentioned in the intro post, this log isn't about learning something new only, but also about some repetitions / revising something.

- Men and women are far from 100% differing from each other. But often there are several significant differences, generally speaking. (As it, also, has been mentioned in the intro post, this log wouldn't be about any baseless generalizations). Now what I wrote above may sound like pointing out the obvious. But there is more to it.

- When there is an unpleasant feeling, in some situations, it can be more useful to focus on that very feeling, rather than saying, "but this feeling's cause was something unimportant". Because even if it really was like this, the particular feeling still would be something major to her. ("her": any particular woman to whom that situation applies).

- Some persons (including, but not limited to, women) wouldn't like being told to calm down when they are angry. On one hand, (at least theoretically) it could be a useful reminder for anyone to calm down. On the other hand, some might not like it. Now I wonder why. And whenever I say "why?" in a case like this, it is a Plain Interrogative Question only ;).

The purpose of this log is writing down my personal learning progress on how to understand women even better, citing some sources on that, doing some revisions as well, etc. Because I really believe in the idea of life-long learning about All Things Communication, I already was thinking about starting a log like this for a little while. 

This log about documenting a particular person's learning progress :) is not about flirting and dating, nor about anything that addresses these matters. So even if a certain Very Generic article on how to understand any aspect of women's personalities [*] that I am currently learning about would be on a site on flirting or dating, I still wouldn't quote it here.

[*] This log isn't about any baseless generalizations either.

These days, someone asked me (elsewhere) how my notebook is organized. It contains sort of my personal lesson plan for at-home study.

Now quoting what I told this person in its entirety. And yes, it is long. But it may still be interesting:

Because it [my notebook] is a multi-language one, it (currently) is organized by languages only. But I didn't reserve five pages for e.g. Polish and another five for Russian. Because it is Very On Demand Learning Oriented, even the headings (containing the language only for now) are written on demand as well.

I personally wouldn't care too much about writing nouns first, then verbs, then phrases. What I would do instead is to apply that On Demand Attitude here as well. Any language consists of many parts, no doubt. But I really love Holistic Learning.

You could organize your own notebook by topic, by day, or by something else.

It's just that there is a little pitfall related to the different categories like colors and animals.

It has been mentioned by one of the polyglots, namely Gabe Wyner. He said that when it comes to French, it still is a bit difficult to remember the correct word for green and blue. Because he learned both of them at the same time. End quote.

This is about the possibility of mixing up similar words. Is blue that similar to green? Wouldn't say so. Even if some languages use a single word for both of them. That's why there is an English translation of a (non-commercial) Japanese Vegetable Advertisement Song that calls people to buy "the big pale blue juice" (...). But back to the main topic. The colors blue and green aren't too similar. However, the words do have some big similarities, in regard of their Learning and Recalling Aspect. This is because they both belong to the same category. And because of that, one could easily mix them up. You could ask "anyone" who tries to learn all major colors at the same time, especially (but not exclusively) when using some "Brute Force Rote Memorization"...

What I like to do in cases like these is not to even write all of them on the same page, but "scattered". Some language courses (no matter if audible or written) do it the same way when introducing words like "I", "you", "he", etc.

And if I would be writing all colors on a single page, I'd still learn one at a time only, while also noting which one currently is in my Yet to Be Learned Queue. If I'd start with blue, I'd mark it with a pencil (not with any color, because marking blue with red and green with orange is... something I'd rather not do). And after having learned it, I could thicken that marking, or write a "check" symbol.

Oghenekevwe wrote:

Thank you so much Jade! I went through the site and discovered thoughtco.com
It is highly informative and really helpful. It contains pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, idioms, culture etc.

FYI, that web site (and its sub-sites) is what remained after the original about . com (which was Very Well Known, once upon a time) had been shut down. And of course, they are supposed to add new content from time to time, too (i.e. content that never was there on about . com). That site used to be "about" too many different topics. And they at least try to make some (sort of) experts write on whatever their field of expertise is, rather than hiring the average "John Doe".

Some time ago, I entirely switched to On Demand Learning. Because of that reason, I queued Spanish, even if it is my most advanced below-C2 one, 'longside Dutch (and maybe French, too) only. But I said to myself, "I wouldn't want to learn it just because, no matter how much progress had been possible in the past already".

And why does that On Demand Learning matter right now? Because that approach also includes not writing down any phrase, expect in a single case (i.e. a phrase of any langue I am actively learning right now). That single case is about either intending to use it very soon in a conversation with anyone (no matter if spoken or written). Or about a high probability of it being said to me (that part is more about spoken conversations, because I can take my time to look it up first in a written one).

Oghenekevwe wrote:

The only thing i want to do better is be more disciplined and dedicated to learning French. Every other thing is secondary to me.

Now what is the place of the French language in your life?

-----

There is one not-so-big but nevertheless important goal I forgot to mention.

It is about basic conversational Esperanto.

Any EO speakers in this forum?

Jade.Xuereb wrote:

You are so much more ambitious thanme :)

Well... you know, Jade, I'd say that while I really do love language learning, it doesn't play the very same role in the lives of everyone.

There may be some other things you are much more ambitious about than me. 

My personal language learning goals for 2019 are:

- Being able to express myself better in Spanish and French (both spoken and written). Currently I can do some "beyond the basics" conversations, but there still is a lot of room for improvements.

- Learning to speak about basic everyday topics, like food and cooking, in Italian before three months would pass. That pressure-less "deadline" has been drawn because of a challenge after talking to an Italian I know in person.

- Advancing some more with Japanese (currently it is A1).

- Some steps towards Swahili becoming a bigger part of my life, even if it already has a place in it anyway. For those of us who don't know it, it is the language of Hakuna Matata.

- Accent reduction (not thinking at all about trying to fully remove it, nor I consider that even necessary): ES, FR, Swahili, Jamaican Patois, ... .

- Connecting my native language (German) to Dutch some more. I'd really be happy if my personal distance between these two would start to shrink some more. (And this sentence might even prove that I even if I wanted to, I couldn't tell anybody that my mother's tongue would be English instead. ;) )

- Reaching any post-A1 level of Polish, like A2. Currently it is pre-A1.

- Since Russian is the only "Very Major World Language" left that isn't included in my main learning list, I'd also like to have some speaking and reading skills. By the way, not counting Chinese, even if it is a Very Major World Language in another sense of the word (i.e. other than the meaning I intend in this context).

- Reaching the A1 level (at least) of some languages on my micro-learning list.They currently are all pre-A1. Most of them aren't included in my profile's list (at the time I am writing this post). However, every single "other: " language from that list is both pre-A1 right now and definitely included in the micro-learning one.

Jess.PWinkler wrote:

SGP wrote:

"sei": this is the imperative singular. The infinitive is "sein". Maybe that simply was a typo.

Thank you for the correction! I thik that's because of my small knowledge in Italian! haha

De nada.

And your knowledge of Italian may be more comprehensive than you would think.

One day, I read a PDF about Dutch. It stated that when any native of German is beginning to learn Dutch, he doesn't start from zero, but from the upper beginner/intermediate level. While DE <-> NL and ES <-> IT aren't the very same in that regard, it still is a similar situation.

And by the way, guess what language I meant when I said something about "sei/sein"? German. Not Italian. :) Without any doubt, "essere" is the IT infinitive of to be. It only was about the following.

Jess.PWinkler wrote:

ESPAÑOL ITALIANO INGLÉS ALEMÁN

Ser Essere To be Sei

By the way, (Jamaican) Patois greatly differs from pure Jamaican (Standard) English. And it also greatly differs from Jamaican English with a few Patois words added (which is found in many songs that are popular internationally, as opposed to locally only).

 So it is similar to the Pure Hawaiian Pidgin, which is considered a language on its own by some, including the US government (if a certain Non-Official Hawaiian YT Spokesperson wasn't wrong ;)). And that pidgin neither is Standard English (far³ from it), nor it is the Hawaiian Language of Aloha.

Just found out how to do so right after posting ;). However, not editing the previous one. Because it, nevertheless, contains some information on why I would add include something in the "other" list.

So adding something to the "other" field simply is being done by adding a language as usual, but not choosing any level like A1 or B2. So I added some.

As for a few others, I wasn't able to enter them in the "add a language" web form.

They are: 

- Jamaican Patois/Patwa (A1 to A2 speaking, B2 comprehension, so let's just say A2).

- Pre-A1 Wolof, Efe (a.k.a. Ewe), Akan and Ga.

SGP wrote:

Also, there are some additional languages that I am learning (but currently not spending too much time on them). As long as they are below the A1 beginner's level even when it comes to reading/listening, I wouldn't include them in the list.

Anybody tell me how to enter a language in the "other:" field that some users have? Tried to do so in the "languages" section of "edit profile", but I didn't find it.

If this possibility still exists, I would like to include some of my pre-A1 languages.

Wouldn't want to add them to the main list, because the distinction between these and those could be a bit blurry for some.

But it still could be a good idea to tell others that one started to learn them. Maybe they did, too.

Jade.Xuereb wrote:

I don't think they would use soy with anything emotional. Just with things can have a state of permenance. Perro no estoy un nativo.

Jade, I'd like to tell you something right now. Figuring out how to solve this "ser vs. estar" puzzle is among the most interesting aspects of learning Spanish to me. Maybe it would be solved incrementally, just like assembling the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, rather than all at once. 

Also, I'd like to briefly mention that I know that typos do happen sometimes. But since you described your current level of Spanish as A2, I'd just like to remind you of something you possibly already know very well anyway. The difference between a single and double consonant sometimes is of additional importance even. Spanish and Arabic have a lot in common.

And sometimes, I wouldn't cease to be amazed because of all these similarities than can serve as a communicational bridge. Getting started in Arabic for natives of Spanish, or vice-versa, is "too easy" even .

One of the "estar" examples I read was "estoy exhausto".

But if someone's general feeling is being exhausted, rather than being very tired one time a day only because of work, would it be "soy exhausto" then?

Jess.PWinkler wrote:

"Ser vs Estar" all over again! haha
Yo soy - I am - verb "ser"
Yo estoy - I am - verb "estar"
You could use "soy" to describe yourself (yo soy alta / I'm tall) or things that you are feeling (yo soy feliz / I'm happy) and "estoy" to describe things you are doing (yo estoy cocinando / I'm cooking)

Funny, eh? Some words simply like coming back!

And of course you are right about "ser" being more for permanent attributes and general statements, while "estoy" is more about anything temporary. Because this is something like the gist of your explanation.

But as for those who didn't grew up using these two intuitively (i.e. non-natives), things could be a bit different.

There also are several additional details that do take some time to master.

First, thank you all for your input. It was far more than I expected.

And it possibly would take a little bit of time until I fully comprehend it.

(But no additional explanations on what you wrote up to now would be even remotely required!)

Also, I'd just like to briefly mention that while I do really like Tagalog, there is a certain reason why my learning process wouldn't be supposed to be as fast as the learning process of someone who dedicates all of his learning time to a single language. (What a loooong sentence, SGP!).

Here's why:

Currently queued to be learned in rotation:

(1) Spanish, French, Swahili, Japanese, Esperanto,

Jamaican Patois, Polish, Russian, Romanian, Dutch, toki pona.

(2) Wolof, Akan, Ewe (a.k.a. Efe), Ga (all African), Sinhala, and Tagalog/Filipino.

Rose.Angelie wrote:

My quick takeaway on this is to find an end goal (instead of just "randomly picking languages") and try to really be consistent!
What about you guys?

As for me, I do intend to persevere just as I (#NotPraisingMyselfButSimplyBeingGrateful) was able to do so in the past, too.

But as for the specific languages I am currently learning, I haven't got the slightest ish' to press the "pause" or even "stop" button sometimes. This means that I would continue some, and decide not to continue some others for now. Couldn't do it otherwise anyway, because the number of those learned/micro-learned in rotation is ... above five, and above ten, too...

dragonsky wrote:

I think "inputs or ideas" is more appropriate than "techniques" then.

Why not techniques?

dragonsky wrote:

Step 6 - Having your thoughts in the foreign language :D

Very important one. Although it doesn't have to be the sixth in a chronological order. It can be combined with something else. Gradual shift.

edz.conde wrote:

Muchas gracias para tus pensamientos.

De nada. Yo no he hecho ninguna cosa.

I got your point. Did you get mine, too?  

That Quotation Mark Thingy is unrelated to what you wrote. It isn't about " " vs ' ' (double quotation marks vs. single quotation marks).

It is about Google only. Because if you search for "muchias gracias", or, instead, for muchias gracias without quotation marks, you get different results.

Writing something within " " means,

"Hey Google, gotta tell ya someting. I only be intarested in any result dat precisely matches mi query. You wan give me any web page with the words "muchias" and "gracias", even if dem be mentioned in two different places wit'in di sem page? No chance, mi nah gwan fi accept dat!"

And writing it without " " means,

"You can give me any results that include all of these words. So if I search for ice cream, you can give me results such as "Vanilla ice cream is among the most popular variants". But I also accept anything else, even if it would be "There is a lot of ice. [... ... ...] By the way, the French word crème means cream in English".

As for what I wrote about "muchas gracias" vs. "muchias gracias": still asking myself whether this would be a certain slang, rather than a wide-spread typo only.

Because as for English, there really are some words that are intentionally misspelled. 

Example: jealous, instead of jelaous.

Charlyn wrote:

'Muchias Gracias' and 'Te Amo' are the two famous phrases that always comes into my mind from my favorite childhood spanish teleserye. :blush:

Now you, too, wrote "muchias" with an i. Am I missing something? Just searched for it, and there were more than 10 000 results. And yes, I did write it within quotation marks when doing the Google search. Is it a slang I am not aware of, or just a wide-spread typo?

Charlyn wrote:

Hi SGP! Yes, the underline one is used for long vowels. Yes, your right about the uses of 'sa'.

Hi Charlyn!

So the underline is for long vowels. And I never saw it outside of some learning material. So it seems that it is something additional only.

And as for the "á" (as opposed to "a" without an accent), it is for stress/emphasis, isn't it?

I also should focus on the differences between informal and formal speech. People from the Philippines are said to be very polite. And at the same time, I could think of something else as well. This is about the cultural differences between the different countries concerning when informal speech is used. Some are much more open, in that regard, than others.

Magandáng umaga: good morning.

Good/beautiful on its own would be magandá.

The root is gandá, beauty.

Some learning web sites could write it as "Magandáng umaga".

If these two underlines are for stress (emphasis), then I wonder what the difference between "a" and "á" is.

Or is the underline used for long vowels instead?

Returning a greeting can be done by repeating it and adding "sa iyó".

"sa" means "to" (as in "to you"). It also is used for several other meanings. Because prepositions don't always translate too well.

Hola, ¿qué tal?

How is your learning process going?

Some improvement suggestions below as well ;).

"sei": this is the imperative singular. The infinitive is "sein". Maybe that simply was a typo. 

So I'd like to tell you something which is Very On Topic: Once I read that someone misspelled this very word (typo) as type-oh.

"seiben" -> sieben.

"zwansig" -> zwanzig. 

"funfzig" -> fünfzig. Or fuenfzig. This is our alternative way of writing it, because Umlauts Really Do Matter. And yes, umlaut exists in English too, as a loanword. The genuine German plural would be (die) Umlaute.

"muchias gracias" -> muchas gracias.

"comento" -> The one I know is comentario only.

"nosotros son" -> nosotros somos. "son" is for ellos/ellas/ustedes.

"Como lejos son tu en aprendezante la lengua? :)"

"aprendezante" -> (el) aprendizaje. 

"son" -> eres (or even estás, because of the "ser vs. estar" difference. The same could apply above as well. If estar would fit better to your use of nosotros there, then it would be estamos.)

"tu" as in "¿Y tú?" (and similar phrases) is written with an accent.

That said, I personally would rephrase the entire sentence.

But I also would speak in a similar way (while paying even more attention to verb conjugations ;)) when starting with any language. I am not among those who reject the idea of Tarzan Speak. There are too many examples of people who used it as a bridge to becoming better at whatever they are learning.

edz.conde wrote:

Haha! Yo soy solamente utulizando mi telefono y no puedo encontrar esto simbolo.

Since you said that you don't have any ish' with being corrected, I could add a few improvement suggestions.

The gerundio of utilizar would be utilizando (U-T-I-...). Just like EN "util" and "to utilize".

And the usual way of laughing in Spanish would be "jaja". Because the J is pronounced, but the H is a silent letter.

However, nowadays there also are cases of words with an H that is pronounced as a J. Like "hacker".

Important: These small corrections are about some specific words and phrases only. As for anything beyond, I keep silent. And that silence neither means that I state that everything else has correct grammar etc., nor that I state the opposite. Among the reasons for doing so is that I didn't reach the level of Active C2 Spanish Knowledge yet.

An example is that sometimes, I am not sure yet whether a Spanish native would prefer to use "soy" or "estoy". So I didn't say anything about your use of "soy" here. Maybe others, like Jess, would be able to answer instead.

Charlyn wrote:

Absolutely! I would not have an interest to learn the specific language if I don't really like/love the culture first. :)

And if SomewhatGeekyPolyglot would post an answer to this thread any day, he would tell you that to him, liking or loving the culture isn't a prerequisite at all. He just might learn any language that has a place in his personal life, no matter what he likes or doesn't like about any particular culture. 

Jade.Xuereb wrote:

Asana is a project management platform, I am on Asana for my article writing. You can create and build teams set projects share files deadlines etc and schedule easily

What if I was someone who is very communicative, but still prefers to work on certain projects on his own? I.e. without team work. Could it (Asana) still be useful?

SGP wrote:

Jade.Xuereb wrote:

Send me your SoundCloud link :blush:you can private message if you prefer

Could it be that the signature isn't being shown on some devices?
Because the link has been there for a while.

Just had a little heureka moment.

While the link is included in the signature, maybe a (copyable) link could be of use to others than Jade, too.

Not everyone has a Computer Mouse Pet after all.

https://soundcloud.com/user-607679555/tracks

Michelle.Batan wrote:

Would you consider going out with someone that you met on the Internet?

As for me, I wouldn't do it. But why? Because I also wouldn't meet just "any woman" I got to know offline. However, the reason could be a bit of a surprise. Before continuing, I'd like the women of you to know that I do realize being born by one of you. Also, a track I made has been dedicated to her. It is called il ostinato della mammina.

So... first of all, I am someone who wouldn't accept the idea of meeting one time only for a certain purpose. (No need for any details, it is clear enough). And I am very well aware of the fact that far from all women would try something like this. However, as with the case of males, there are also females who are like that (even if the number of males could be/is far higher). So I do some filtering from the very start.

Then, while the number of women being interested in ... well, someone .... isn't small at all, for a long time, none of them managed to even meet me so that we could get to know each other. It's not that I would be to shy to ask for such a meeting (on the contrary.... there are way too many occasions even). But it is about not considering any of them interesting enough for such a Getting To Know Each Other Meeting. There is even an instrumental I made about a certain type of women (again, it isn't about all of them....). It is called 4 Kopy Kats Straying. Because it is about those of them who basically don't even have any unique personality on their own.

On the other hand, if any woman would be interesting enough, things could be entirely different. While I am not at all someone who would agree to a "Both Of Us Can End It Any Second By Sending An SMS" relationship, the circumstances within which a certain type of relationship could be possible are far less restrictive than it could seem to some. And as for any site for those looking for someone, I wouldn't join it either, because I am simply not searching for any woman. If something really good happens, well, there no denial that I would really like it, too. But this and anything related to it isn't something I can't live without.

wrote:

Or I could just be giving you an innocent reply to the question you asked me. Not everyone has an agenda Benjamin.

Yes, not wanting to advertise it has a really high probability.

But do you know the meaning of SCNR?

wrote:

Some people here in Nigeria say aks but it's mostly when we're speaking Pidgin English.

Now it is time for another German word. Schleichwerbung. 

It literally means sneaking advertisement. As in: very subtle. Not sneaky.

One possible interpretation of her post would be: Because I already spoke about possibly making a log about Jamaican Patois/Patwa, she side-noted that there is a pidgin in Nigeria, too.

So maybe she secretly is advertising something. She could try to suggest that I should learn that pidgin instead, but she still wouldn't admit it .

Jade.Xuereb wrote:

Send me your SoundCloud link :blush:you can private message if you prefer

Could it be that the signature isn't being shown on some devices?

Because the link has been there for a while.

dragonsky wrote:

I feel jealous for people that can learn like this.

You feel jelly for them? Jelouse?

Doesn't seem as if anyone would be really learning by the sole means of flashcards. "Sole", as in: eating them raw, without cooking or adding some spice. At least there would be some additional Mental Processing Work. Like asking oneself how to say this and that. This is a way of actually using it. 

Coming from someone who quit eating flashcards a long time ago. And who doesn't recall ever having utilized them as his only tool, not even in combination with that Mental Processing Work.

Merci à toi für das Willkommen dragonsky et Michelle.

dragonsky wrote:

Welcome here Ben (can I call you that? :D ) I hope you enjoy it (and enjoy us!) :D

Yes you have got the ability to call me that ;). However, I prefer any of my (full) first name or SGP.

zKing wrote:

Of course I'm exaggerating to make a point, but it isn't that uncommon to find folks who say they are learning a language and the ONLY thing they are doing is flashcards or some app that is pretty much the same thing.

That would be like drawing some dots only, without connecting them.

edz.conde wrote:

Anyway congratulations for not being ashamed with having a brain neuron that is "slightly differently wired",

Well, thanks, although I personally don't know any valid reason for being ashamed because of it anyway. Even if I used to think differently in the past. But still.

wrote:

it makes you actually a unique and special person because you belong to "maybe 5% to 10% of the population. " It also makes you talented.

I'd say that both types of neurons (the typical way and the diversical way) have their own strengths. After that, it is about what you make out of it.

And I have my own reasons for choosing a nickname hinting to it, in addition to also explaining it in a forum (and in my Soundcloud profile, too).

wrote:

I hope during your younger years you did not go through the rough roads with this millenial thing they called "bullying". Because I got a classmate or two back in high school who was "somewhat geeky" and the other students really bullied thwn

Nobody pity me now (simply not having the need of it).

There was more bullying than I can count. 

But it happened many, many years ago.

Also, even back then, there were more than enough persons who were clever enough not to do anything like that.

In German, we say "Milchmädchen-Rechnung" when someone jumps to premature and far-fetched conclusions. Literally it means "a milk girl's calculation". So there were also many people who didn't do anything like that. Instead, they were aware that "being different" isn't the same as "being mentally ill" or anything.

Nowadays it is entirely gone, for what I am very grateful. (I hope that it would be clear that being grateful isn't at all about thanking anyone for not bullying.)

There are too many stereotypes out there. Sounds like pointing out the obvious maybe. This is about many people thinking that differing from the majority's neuron wirings equals mental illness. But there are also others who have a different point of view. And some neurologists would also explicitly state in their diagnosis that this different way of being doesn't mean having lower intelligence than others. 

Now why could the above also matter to those who never (knowingly) met someone with some non-standard neuron wirings? Well, I would say that it does matter because "we" are there anyway, even if "you" wouldn't always recognize "us". What am I hinting to, using these quotation marks? I am not drawing any real line of distinction. There are people with this neuron wiring who have some behavior patterns of that, and also the other way around. I think that if we get to know more about each other, related to both of the similarities and the differences, a number of things in the lives of everyone could improve. Like avoiding some unnecessary misunderstandings, feelings of offense and so on. That is one out of several reasons why I started additionally learning about All Things Communication some time ago, and why I am still very into it.

Sloftin wrote:

I have always loved learning about languages and cultures. I speake
English and learning about Spanish and German, I love connecting with new people and places. Currently going to college to be a teacher and want to carry my love into my classrooms later on. Thank you all for reading and happy learning.

Do you plan to teach both of them?

And I just noticed that Swedish snuck in, too. How come?

Derrick wrote:

What do you guys think of this so far hoping to learn a little bit of different languages

Hi there Derrick.

If I am not mistaken, you didn't really tell us what they are :). Sort of a private secret, or could you announce it? As for me, I do agree to virtually sign a Non Disclosure Agreement even!!1 

Rose.Angelie wrote:

Hi Benjamin, welcome! :)
Reading your previous post (African/Carribean) was pretty fun. I was like rapping in my mind. :smile:

Rose.Angelie, tank yuh, too, fo di welcam.

Eh, how come gal? First she be laughing. Den it be yuh.

Yuh females be laughing all di time? # NotIntoGeneralizashons

And what is dat rapping ting all about? What does rapping even mean? If anyting, mi words be mo laik reggae. Mo precisely, similar to ragga or dancehall. But witout iny dancing. So mi go so den.

meifeng wrote:

Wow, looks like I missed out on a bunch of stuff over the weekend. Welcome! That's quite an eclectic + exotic list of languages. Why Toki Pona? Where does one even learn that???

meifeng, thank you for the welcome. Yes, I also would like to ask why I am even learning toki pona. But still, I do know the answer :). It captured some of my interest because it is very minimalistic.

So there is a nice contrast. Some very big languages on the one hand, and TP on the other. Because it only has (approx.) 120 to 130 words, there is a great need of using them as building blocks. Y'know... making compound words.

Also, I somehow like TP because of another reason. It is one out of several tools to greatly reduce the probability of unnecessary misunderstandings. Of course we couldn't avoid all of them anyway. But in the case of toki pona, there is some built-in ambiguity. 

It is there by design, and it cannot be removed by further TP-only clarifications either. Because as long as one is speaking it, one only is able to use any of those very broad-scope words. Its designer (a linguist called Sonja Lang) intentionally decided against them providing too many details.

And where to learn it? Unlike other languages, I would simply read about it on (almost) any web site that includes more than just a brief introduction. This is because both the vocabulary and the grammar is very compact and surprisingly easy.

Oghenekevwe wrote:

Very funny. I was actually able to read through what you wrote. Usually it gives me a headache to read through this Jamaican way of speaking and writing. The 'aks' part got me laughing too.

Yes it is Jamaican, too, but "tink", "ting" etc. are also included in some variants of African English. Not telling you anything new.

And when having a conversation with anyone in my English mix, I include very few unique Caribbean/Jamaican words. E.g. "wan fi" instead of "want to" sometimes, but that's all.

You could get a headache even when reading some Caribbeanized English?

Well... did you know that Real Jamaican Patois is on my mental list of languages I intend to learn more about? I am interested in it for pure language related purposes. And I do intend to deepen it in the not-so-distant future. English with some Caribbean elements is "nothing" compared to it. In case I would any day open a log about it on this forum, I would include the language's name in the thread's title, too, so that whoever could get a headache reading it would be fore-warned.

But maybe you could tell me something new. Do you know in which country or countries they say "aks" instead of "ask"? I do know that it is being said like this, heard it more than once or twice. But not sure where it comes from.

ikaymoreno wrote:

I'm so old school I design PowerPoint presentations on paper. Hahahahahaha! I used to do that because we didn't have a computer so I need to have my sh*t all planned out before I go out and rent a computer to write a report or create a PPT. To this day, I create my outlines for manuals and PPTs on paper before I work on it on my laptop

Someone designing Power Point presentations on paper?

Not a big surprise. Paper really is a Multi Purpose Tool after all.

Yes, many of us take it for granted. But a long time ago, it was too expensive or non-existent even.

When I was a teenager, someone had a reason to test my programming skills (which were very improvable, today they are quite rusty). So he asked me to write a small program's code without a computer. # PaperIsRetroButIStillLikeIt

Maraming salamat sa iyo. More than what I even was expecting.

Jade.Xuereb wrote:

Half of my family are Libyan or Egyptian, and the rest of us moved to Spain 2 years ago. And we say caught my eye

Right now I realized that my previous post had some off-topic tendencies. Seems that it happened because I sometimes think more of "what could I say in response?" only. Rather than "remembering the thread's title".

Adding some rare English words myself:

- gibberish (well, not 100% rare, but still)

- ragamuffin 

- lollygag, lollygagging

- Frankenfood

- biblioklept (book thief)

ikaymoreno wrote:

I grew up writign down things so it's helpful for me. I feel like I'm learning it twice when I write things down.

And I also grew up writing down things.

Still doing so for a number of purposes.

While also striving for balancing it, and not writing down too much.

Because one day I read that in some situations (not all), a piece of paper would act as an external brain cell.

And it would be one that isn't available all the time. 

Then I verified this claim a bit ;), and at least for me, it really was like that too often.

So writing something down could either aid or hinder remembering it, it depends.

Hi ikaymoreno!

There actually were two questions. The implied one is, "How come there are so many Tagalog speakers here"? Because this currently is a not-so-big forum (which has its advantages too, no doubt).

And the second one is, "Is there any (major) difference between the official language of the Philippines and the variant actually spoken there?". Because for some countries, the difference is so big that one would need to decide to learn this or that (or even both at the same time).

What I would like to do is to be able to talk to people from the Philippines who live abroad. And I fully do realize that many of you are among Asia's more/most fluent English speakers. But still, I do aim for some language knowledge that is more unique to any particular country whenever possible. And I'd also like to be able to participate (after some time) in any Tagalog-based conversation in this forum. 

So if I can restrict myself to one variant of Tagalog/Filipino, rather than learning two different ones, I would prefer that.

And as for what I mean by "Standard Tagalog", maybe I simply would quote something from a Tagalog learning site. However, it isn't at all the only thing I read about it. Currently, I still don't really know to which extent the official language could differ from the one used for (spoken) conversations.

(learningtagalog . com/articles/tagalog_filipino_pilipino_difference.html) wrote:

Tagalog is the native language of the Tagalog ethnic group in the Philippines. It has several dialects, the most prominent of which is Manila Tagalog. Considered to be standard Tagalog, it is the language used in the national media, and the lingua franca of Filipinos both in the Philippines and outside the country.

[...]

Nobody can claim to be a native speaker of Filipino but not of Tagalog. It would be absurd to ask someone to speak Filipino instead of Tagalog. And the majority of people—from native speakers to foreign linguists—still call the language Tagalog.

So what's the difference between Tagalog, Filipino and Pilipino? In reality, there is none. Filipino and Pilipino are simply different names for Tagalog.

ikaymoreno wrote:

Maybe we can earn berries like in Busuu? I enjoyed getting those things and buying cool stickers and badges with it. :)

Berries could be somewhat interesting, too.

If Leo theoretically introduced some, I think he would make sure, too, that they do not resemble Busuu's too closely.

I already had been thinking about fruits and vegetables when writing my previous post.

But it also came to my mind that some fruits/vegetables, while having many, many fans, also are unpopular in the eyes of other persons.

   

 

      

Jade.Xuereb wrote:

I think a key ingredient to language acquisition is learning how you learn best.

Agreed.

And that's why trying several things can be useful.